The Realm of The Mutants
by HarmonyBenderFreak
Summary: Sveta: Heir to the thrown of Belinsk, now the Queen. Matthew: a broken warrior who suffers from PTSD. When duties are tossed aside and pieces are glued back together, everything catches on fire when they discover the burning heart of a nation once lost...
1. One More Night

**...**

**Guys...**

**I feel so ashamed of myself right now. I mean, here I am, not having updated any of my stories for at **_**least**_** 4 months, and I'm writing ANOTHER one. (Well, this one is from a fandom I just recently got introduced to, so there's a possibility that I might just stay on the ball...)**

**...**

**Really, guys. PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who plays this game.  
**

**(But other than that, thank you for the amazing 'Happy Birthdays' I got from you guys. You're the best!)**

* * *

_Set after the Apollo Lens. I'm pretending that the Psynergy Vortex never appeared. _

_Plus, I don't really involve Kraden that much, because he never really participates in anything other than being old and...know-it-all-ish..._

_Oh-and though I'm not sure yet, I might possibly be shipping EoleoxAmiti. Haven't decided, but it's possible._

* * *

So everyone was walking home after stopping the Grave Eclipse. All that crap, yadda yadda.

The warriors were walking in silence (not that this wasn't normal for Matthew, mind you), the only sounds being the occasional rustle of leaves in the wind and the scuffing noise boots make when they're dragged against the ground.

No one was really happy about parting ways.

Amiti, out of everybody, was probably the most depressed. Since the first person to break away from the group was Eoleo, who's ship was the first destination the Adepts had to come to, both the Mars pirate and the Mercury prince were walking with their shoulders slumped so much that any stray passerby might think that they dislocated their arms or something alike. They both constantly had to blink tears out of their eyes, and they stole pitiful, depressed glances at each other when they thought nobody was looking.

Though the silence was painfully deafening, nobody had the heart or energy to break it-because they all knew that once they did, the tears and the painful goodbyes would come, and they wouldn't stop. Not until somebody else decided to try and destroy the world; and that isn't exactly the happiest reunion anybody could think of, don't you agree?

But, after another thirty minutes of walking, the silence became even more unbearable than the heartbreak.

Or at least, to Karis, it was.

"Guys, it's starting to get dark. We should set up camp and wait until morning to continue."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. One more night added to how much time they had together.

Then everyone began to settle in. Backpacks filled with heavy weapons and armor were thrown against tree trunks, tents were assembled neatly in an expert fashion, and fireballs were thrown at bundles of timber surrounded by a two-dimensional sphere of rocks. The air, once filled with the roar of a crackling fire, was soon flooded with the laughter and conversations that everyone had been too tense to have during the journey.

Two people, however, were as silent as ever. (Geez, I _really_ suck at writing, don't I?)

Matthew, who was sitting against the side of the tent he had been assigned to, was sorting through his own pack of things, organizing them in the way only bored and/or distressed people do. And Sveta, who had been sitting quietly in front of the fire with the others, was starting to notice his absence.

Without drawing the attention of the rest of the group, she silently sniffed the air, tracking his scent. Once she located him at the second farthest tent from the ring of Adepts, she inched away from the bubbling aura of happiness, sank into the shadows cast by the fiery sunset over the horizon, and went to go check up on him.

She found him depressingly shuffling various small objects around in his backpack, holding a particularly shiny one in which he was looking at closely, but as if he were simply thinking about something instead of studying it.

"Matthew."

Said Venus Adept was slightly startled by the sudden presence of the young beastwoman, causing him to drop one of the coins he had been counting from his bag onto the grassy floor of the plains they were camping on that night.

He turned to look at her, and gave her a small smile, which was a welcome greeting in his manner. Sveta walked closer to the blue-eyed warrior and sat cross-legged in the grass about four feet away from him. Even this close to him, she felt her heart start to beat faster than normally. Sveta silently thanked the Goddess of Fate for making her the one with enhanced senses.

"Why are you out here instead of with the others? Are you not relieved to be going home soon?" She asked, with a soft yet genuine caring worry present in her voice. Her emerald green eyes were bright, even in the darkness of dusk's shadows.

Matthew put his bag on the space to his right, drew his knees up to his chest, and sighed while looking at the ground. His blonde eyebrows were drawn together in worry and despair. Sveta felt his sadness seeping into the air around him, granting her even more worry for the naturally motivational leader.

"You are sad to leave our friends behind, are you not?" He only nodded in response and continued to stare at the earth beneath him.

The Wind Adept scooted closer to the golden-haired man (yes, she considered him a man), leaving him space but giving him the message that she wasn't leaving anytime soon. "Would you like to talk about it?" she asked, only getting an ironic chuckle from the fact that the owner of the ever-famous yellow scarf rarely talked.

Using her Spirit Sense, Sveta went into his mind and communicated with him telepathically._ Would you prefer we talked like this?_

The son of two of the famous Warriors of Vale stared blankly at nothing in particular for a few moments, then thought back, **_If you're comfortable with it._**

Sveta once again adjusted her spot near him, but this time just moved until she was in front of him instead of to his side.

_You are not the only one to be upset about all of our separation, Matthew._

**_Yeah...I think Amiti and Eoleo really made that obvious._**

_They were only prematurely grieving the loss of one another. They became very close at sea, you do recall._

_**They did a lot more than that...**_

Matthew.

**_Just__ saying._**

_*sigh*_ _Honestly, though.__ You are lucky you did not have to hear them crying last night. It is depressingly heartbreaking._

**_I know, Sveta. It's gonna be okay, though. This is all going to work out somehow._**

_Then why do you still act this way?_

**_Well, I just feel like instead of losing my friends...I'm losing my family._**

_...That is very understandable, Matthew, for you to feel that way. And you will never completely lose us. We will just not be with you as often as we have been recently._

**_But that's the part that upsets me the most. All of you guys-Karis, Tyrell, Rief, Amiti, Eoleo, Himi, and you-are really the only family I have. Once you leave...I'll be alone again._**

_You have much more family then that. You have the Warriors of Vale, and the citizens of all of the kingdoms you saved, just to name a minority of them. You will always have Karis and Tyrell with you, and I doubt that Kraden will stay away from your and Tyrells' fathers very long with how much information he has gathered over his travels._

**_I hate to correct you, Sveta, but that's not really the kind of situation I'm in. I haven't seen my own mother in more than eight years, yet alone any other Warriors of Vale besides my father and Garet. When I go home, Isaac will only have me be helping him study Mt. Aleph, so I won't have time to travel anywhere. If Kraden comes over, it will be to see Isaac, and he probably won't have Rief or Nowell with him. And let's face it-as much as I care for Tyrell and Karis, it still won't be the same without you all._**

At this thought, Sveta felt a pang in her heart from realizing just how heartbroken the Earth Adept would be without the whole team there with him. She stood up, sending her last words to him so that he could think about this in peace.

_Matthew, no matter how far away we are, no matter what stands between us, no matter what happens...you will always be in my_ _heart._

Sveta meant to shield her remaining thoughts from him, but one of them reached him anyways.

_And no matter what, I will always love you__. Even if it kills me._

Matthew took in a sharp breath on that note, and Sveta's eyes widened as she noticed what mistake she'd made.

With her ears almost flat against her head, she stuttered, trying to it cover up. But after only a few moments of this, she was left speechless from the look Matthew gave her after standing up himself.

He was looking at her with a bewildered expression on his face. Not in a bad way, but in a...hopeful way. As if he had been waiting for her thoughts to slip like that for such a long time that he had almost given up on the idea.

"Could you say that again?" He asked, his tone almost completely neutral with something undetectable behind it.

Sveta's mouth felt dry. "I said that...that I would always...love you. No matter what. Even if it kills me."

Her heart was thumping unbelievably hard. Hearing the words escape from her lips, knowing very well that Matthew was fully aware of them...she was starting to feel a little faint.

But as Sveta was silently having a nervous breakdown, Matthew's heart had stopped all together. All he could do was stare at her blankly, blinking occasionally. The gestures made the Wind Adept feel nervous and self-conscious.

When he started to regain control of his senses, he slowly broke out into a huge grin that gave him a remarkable resemblance to the Cheshire cat. "You have no idea how bad I've wanted to hear you say that."

Sveta's ears perked up, and she looked at him in amazement and disbelief.

Matthew started laughing, his deep, dark eyes twinkling with happiness. "I love you too." He said, as he pulled her into his embrace.

With a few seconds of convincing herself that it wasn't a dream, Sveta wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling his familiar yellow scarf brush against her skin. She sighed in contentment, burrowing her face into his shoulder while breathing in his scent deeply. Matthew placed his hands on the small of her back and behind her neck, feeling unbelievably happy to finally have her with him.

After a few minutes, his curiosity got the best of Matthew, and he had to break the silence with a question. "So...can we be..._together_ now?"

Sveta chuckled under her breath. "Matthew, you have protected me, healed me, and even _given your soul_ to me. I would think of that commitment enough to prove you worthy of being the boyfriend of _anyone, _not just me."

He laughed again at her sarcasm. "I'm taking that as a yes. Just thought you'd like to know."

She couldn't help but smile. "You should show this side of yourself more often. I like it much better than that silent, broody leader I first took you as."

"Consider it done, my lady." Matthew said in a fake Royal accent. He held out his arm to her. "Shall I return you to the others?"

Sveta took his arm in hers, mimicking his voice. "It would be an honor, my lord."

* * *

**A/N: Holy crap, I REALLY suck at writing!**

**I'm sorry for putting you guys through such a terrible 'story'...honestly, I don't know why I even bother writing. It has no benefit in any way to anybody.**

**I hope I didn't make the pair too OOC at the end...**

**Though, either way, I'd still really REALLY appreciate it if you were to type a little something into that white box down there and then press the little blue button, too. Please. ****It will make me _very_ happy!**

**Fruit Loop!**

**~Harmony**


	2. The Light Of My Heart

**Um...hi. *omgisuckatthis***

**So, I found out a few days after I posted Chapter One that I do, in fact, ship AmitixEoleo. I mean, they're just meant to be! (Though I can see Amiti being an in-the-closet kind of guy...) So, even at the fast reference, Eoleo's return to the sea is going to be having some of those special, fluffy gay feels.**

**And I found out the day after I posted the first chapter that linking it to everyone I know on DeviantArt is, in fact, not a good idea. (What can I say?! I was giddy and sleep-deprived!)**

**So...uh...let's just hope that this story does not end up being the embarrassing death of me.**

**I can't remember if I did the disclaimer in the last chapter, but, unfortunately, I do not own Golden Sun. If I did, I'd have access to a GameBoy Advance so that I could play the first two games, and I would have Matthew and Sveta kiss at least ONCE before the end of Dark Dawn.**

**Please, ignore my ranting Author's Note and continue on with my crappy excuse of a story that I wrote in the middle of the night.**

* * *

Matthew, for starters, was definitely not a Mars Adept like his mother. But he still rose as early as one, anyhow.

It was just before the start of dawn that he awakened, lying still on his side within the tent that he and Tyrell shared. You'd have thought that Tyrell would be an early riser, but no-he was still asleep, so soundly that even the volume of his own snores couldn't wake him up. Thinking about this made Matthew smile into the darkness, remembering how Karis had been the only one to be able to shake him out of his sleepy haven whenever they'd have camping trips as children. As time went on, Tyrell had subconsiously learned to stop sleeping so deeply (because the deeper he slept, the angrier Karis was getting him up) but since he had been a lot more physically active since the start of their journey, even the threats of a certain irritated girl with green hair couldn't stop him from completely crashing out at the end of the day.

Matthew silently arose from his makeshift cot of a sheet and a bundle of clothes as a pillow, swiftly put his father's dark blue trench coat over his undergarments and went outside to see the sun rise.

No one in the group knew that he had it. But in the earliest possible hours of the day him, Tyrell, and Karis had slept in a hotel at Carver's Camp, he got a package from Isaac that was delivered from a messanger bird. He had unwrapped the package to find the jacket his father always wore along with a note that said:

_**Dear Matthew,**_

_**By the time you get this, you'll probably be a good ways in to your journey. Though I have to keep this message short, I wanted to give you something to remind you that the uncharted territory of the world doesn't have to be so different from home. Stay safe.**_

_**-Dad**_

Before he could write anything back to his father, the carrier pigeon had flown away, and was already only a small speck in the sky by the time he was done reading the note. Ever since then, he had made sure the coat was always with him and slept in it on especially cold nights. At some points in time, it had been difficult keeping it hidden from the others, but with some smooth recoveries and made-up-on-the-spot excuses, he had managed to shield it from the knowledge of anyone else. _But today, _he thought,_ I'm not hiding it. I'm too close to home now for any last-minute secrets._

Sitting cross-legged on top of a particularly large boulder at least a few meters from the rest of the (mostly) silent tents, the silent leader of the Warriors of the Grave Eclipse rested his elbows on his knees and gazed, entranced, to the colorful sunrise; full of flame-like reds and oranges branching out from the dawning horizon in a slow, soundless dance of life.

As the newly born rays of sun hit Matthew's face, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. Most people thought he was crazy for this, but he could actually smell sunlight. It smelled warm and fresh, like hot prarie grass in late summer afternoons. Though he hadn't seen his mother in so long he could barely remember her, the one memory of the red-eyed Mars Adept he could clearly think of was the smell of her. She had a bit of a whiff of something natural and sweet-mango or passion fruit? Matthew wondered aimlessly-but what he mostly smelled in her was just pure, golden sunshine. That was mainly the reason he got up this early in the morning. Being able to smell the start of a brand new day, the warmth and crispness of excitement and a fresh start, it made him feel like it connected him to his mother-even if she was countless miles away. Matthew could remember the first time Isaac had caught him up this early. He had been seven, almost eight years old, sitting on the edge of the cliff that overlooked the remnants of Mt. Aleph, when he had heard heavy, leather boots on the ground behind him. When the footsteps stops at his back, he craned his neck backwards to see who it was-not that he didn't recognize them, anyways.

"And just what do you think you're doing up this early, young man?", Isaac said, looking down at his son with a smile that clearly said, _I caught you in the act, don't try to hide it from me._

Little Matthew shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the sunrise. His father walked to his side and crouched down so that he was almost eye-level with him. "When I said you and Tyrell were supposed to start waking up earlier, I didn't mean it like this. You were supposed to do it gradually so that your bodies would adjust to it."

Matthew chuckled to himself a bit. "I've been getting up this early for a couple of years now, Dad. Don't bust a vein about it."

Isaac looked down at the younger specimen of him and raised his eyebrows. "Two things; One, Garet would be the one busting a vein, not me. Two, since when has my barely eight-years-old son been waking up at and before dawn?"

The round-cheeked child tossed a pebble over the cliff with his thumb and started swinging his legs. "About...a few months after Mom left."

After a few moments of coming to a realization of how long ago that was, Isaac furrowed his eyebrows in concern and opened his mouth to say something. But before he could, his son held up a hand and said, "Dad, don't worry about it. Just close your eyes and take a deep breath.

Following the young Venus Adepts instructions, Isaac did as was instructed. He adjusted his position so that he was sitting with his legs over the cliff, just like Matthew. After a few minutes of the breathing, he reopened his eyes to see that his son had been doing the same. "Do you do that a lot? The breathing thing, I mean?"

Without opening his eyes, he spoke. "Yeah. The smell of the sunshine calms me down and reminds me of-"

He muttered the next word, speaking so quietly not even his father could hear him. "Reminds you of what, Matt?"

"It reminds me of...Mom. The warm feeling the sun gives me reminds me of Mom hugging me before I go to bed at night. The smell of it reminds me of her, too, because she smells just like the sunlight. As if just being around her were like being given a fresh start in life, a new way of looking at things. It helps me not miss her, because it makes me feel like she's right there with me."

Isaac sat in silence for the rest of the morning and afternoon. During training, he barely spoke at all, only telling Matthew and Tyrell how to make their fighting stances better and telling them they did a good job at the end of the day. But before his son could disappear into his and his friend's shared bedroom for the night, he pulled Matthew into a tight embrace. Little Matthew, of course, was shocked by this unusual display of affection, but hugged him back just as tightly after a few seconds. And since that day, about two to three times a week, his father would come out to the cliff (or sometimes the roof, when the edge of the cliff would grow weak and was about to give away) with a tray of herbal tea and sit with him in silence while watching the sun rise and sipping steaming cups of dark, flavorful liquid. It was in that manner in which Matthew and Isaac bonded over the years, silently sharing their yearning for Jenna and their determination that she would come back one day.

But while Matthew was thinking this, someone else had come up behind him.

"You are up early this morning."

With a startled jump, the blue-eyed early bird turned to see Sveta, already dressed in her usual day attire. Her long ears were perked up from finally getting some sleep and her light green eyes seemed to shimmer in the low, golden light of the morning. And though anyone else would have been annoyed, or angry, Matthew couldn't help but to smile at her. His usually wind-blown hair was even messier than usual, like a fuzzy, blonde mess to go along with the rest of life's stressful plot, but Sveta found it one of his best physical traits. The way it hung into his eyes made you want to run your hands through it and comb the locks away from his face, and multiple times already Sveta had to stop herself from doing just that.

Matthew patted the space on the boulder next to him. "I couldn't help but to hope that you would accompany me this morning, so I saved this seat for you." He joked, with a playful grin. Sveta rolled her eyes slightly at his failed attempt to flirt with her, but sat down anyways. She eyed him up and down for a few moments, and then asked, "Where did you get that jacket?"

Matthew looked down to the garment in question. The dark blue color of the fine, worn material matched his eyes perfectly, and was so big on him that it went far past his knees and stopped only an inch above his ankles. The size of the jacket's arms were so large that two people his size could ease into it with no struggle at all. "It's my dad's. He let me take it for the journey so that I could feel safe."

Sveta searched his face cautiously, looking for any sign of sad or angry emotions. When she saw nothing but peace and serenity, she smiled and ran her hand over the cuff of one of the sleeves. The texture of the old clothing was a little rough, but somehow soothing. It was easy to see why Matthew seemed so comfortable in the oversized coat.

But after a minute or so of her doing this, Matthew looked down at her hand, then at her, and asked, "Want to see what it feels like when you're wearing it?"

The beastwoman dropped her hand from the jacket. "No, I could never..."

"It's fine. I won't even have to take it off." With Sveta still refusing the offer, Matthew shifted her onto his lap, pushed her arms through the sleeves of the garment and wrapped it's lapels around her warm body. Shocked from the sudden contact, the Jupiter Adept blushed furiously and couldn't even talk, because she knew that she would stutter embarrassingly if she did. But after some time of getting comfortable with the feeling of Matthew's arms around her, Sveta relaxed and snuggled herself closer into the safe haven of the Venus Adept's body, sighing with contentment from the warmth.

And it was in the strong, loving embrace of one another that both of them felt that they were finally, truly home.

* * *

**A/N: ...Once again, I must state how terrible my writing sucks.**

**I'm sorry for this crappy filler chapter, but when I was trying to continue it I just couldn't do it. If I had tried to fit all of this fluff into the chapter along with Amiti and Eoleo's tearful parting, it would've sucked even worse than it already does. (Which is hard to say, from how disgustingly shameful it already is, but it's true...trust me)**

**Don't worry, though; Chapter 3 is already in the works. But it might take a while, even though I'm finally back from New York, because I'm trying to adjust the plotline of the story in my head chapter by chapter so that it works out exactly the way I want it to. Well...believe it or not, this chapter wasn't intended, but 'Lit Happens' sometimes, am I right?**

**(EDIT: I finally came up with a title for the story. Interesting that I can be at least somewhat useful, eh?)**

**Review, please. It will make me happy, since I've had 100, almost 200 views so far and only 1 review. (Really...that fact breaks my heart every time I think of it.)**

**Fruit Loop!**

**~Harmony**


End file.
